Media

Serie A President Maurizio Beretta has called on the Italian league "to build on its status as Europe’s second biggest competition in terms of broadcast rights," according to SOCCEREX. A meeting is "set to be held on Friday to determine the future course of what has been a contentious issue in recent weeks." A Serie A meeting was held on Friday "in the wake of reports that the IMG agency had contacted Beretta to express an interest in becoming the league’s new media-rights sales adviser." Serie A’s current adviser is the Infront Sports & Media agency and its deal is due to run until the end of the '15-16 season. Although Infront’s status "was not directly addressed at Friday’s meeting," the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reported that a gathering this week "will group together Italian broadcasters such as Sky Italia, Mediaset and Rai with league’s overseas rights adviser -- MP & Silva." The meeting "will be held with a view to discussing new marketing strategies" for the three years spanning '15-18 (SOCCEREX, 9/16).

BT TV CEO Marc Watson said that BT's new sports app "is expected to reach the 1 million download milestone next month," according to DIGITAL TV EUROPE. Making a keynote speech at the Royal Television Society, Watson said that "though U.K. ratings body Barb does not currently measure the number of app viewers, the trend for people watching online -- whether via a PC, Mac or a mobile device -- was growing and broadband would increasingly be an important platform for television." Watson said, "Television is changing thanks to broadband and that transformation is only going to get more dramatic as customers move to much faster fibre. It is clear that many customers are now watching online rather than via their TV sets and we hope that Barb will soon find a way to capture this important audience." BT said that "more than three million households are already equipped to watch its new sports channels on their TVs -- either via satellite, BT TV or Virgin Media" (DIGITAL TV EUROPE, 9/13).

Betting data provider Sportradar has announced an agreement with int'l media company MP & Silva to license the exclusive retail rights for the French Ligue 1. The contract includes a minimum of 125 matches for the current football season and started with the live broadcast of the match between Toulouse FC and Olympique de Marseille on Saturday on Betradar’s Live Channel for retail betting operators. The acquired media rights package includes the French Ligue 2, Coupe de la Ligue, Major League Soccer, a package of ATP 250 tennis tournaments, Spanish Basketball League (ACB), Handball EHF Champions League, Handball Bundesliga (HBL) and additional int'l rights. The acquired media rights packages will be distributed in Betradar’s Live Channel, which was launched earlier this summer (Sportradar).

Eurosport has announced an agreement with stakeholder Discovery Communications that will bring its flagship Eurosport TV channel to U.S. viewers for the first time in its 24-year history. Starting Sept. 28, a new Saturday afternoon programming block "Eurosport on Velocity" featuring motorsports highlights will air from 1-3pm, with encore presentations airing every Sunday morning on Discovery’s Velocity channel, the first U.S. cable network targeting an upscale male audience. Velocity introduces four motorsport series to U.S. audiences. The FIA European Rally Championship, managed and promoted by Eurosport Events, the group's expert division in sports event management, the British Superbike Championship, the Silk Way Rally and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (Eurosport).

German sports channel Sport1 "recorded tremendous ratings for its broadcast of the women's 2013 European Volleyball Championships final between Germany and Russia on Saturday," according to Alexander Krei of DWDL. An average of 730,000 viewers tuned in to watch the game starting at 7:48pm. The number translated into a market share of 2.7%. In the target demographic 14-49, Russia's 3-1 victory obtained a 3.7% market share (DWDL, 9/16).

BUNDESLIGA: DWDL's Krei also reported German pay-TV channel Sky "attracted 490,000 viewers to its broadcast of the Bundesliga game between Hoffenheim and Mönchengladbach on Sunday." Hoffenheim's 2-1 victory obtained a 4% market share in the target demographic. The second game between Braunschweig and Nuremberg, which ended in a 1-1 draw, was watched by 590,000 viewers and had a 3.4% share (DWDL, 9/16).

DAVIS CUP: DWDL's Krei reported German free-to-air TV channel Sat.1 Gold "received decent ratings for its broadcast of the Davis Cup matchup between Germany and Brazil on Sunday." An average of 40,000 viewers tuned in to watch Germany's 3-1 victory starting at 1:07pm. The number equaled a 0.3% market share in both overall demographic and target demographic. The viewership decreased to 20,000 starting at 3:34pm. In the target demographic, the market share "decreased to an unmeasurable number" (DWDL, 9/16).

U.K. pay-TV operator BSkyB "has become the exclusive sales agent for horse racing broadcaster Racing UK’s commercial TV service on satellite, that alongside its existing At The Races coverage, makes Sky the principal source of horse racing coverage for pubs and clubs," according to DIGITAL TV EUROPE. The deal "does not include Racing UK’s service for bookmakers." Racing UK TV "shows action from 33 racecourses in the U.K. including Cheltenham, Aintree, Newmarket, Epsom, York, Newbury, Goodwood and Sandown, with Ascot joining the channel in June 2014." The deal "is separate to Racing UK’s residential service, which continues to operate as a standalone channel with about 45,000 subscribers." The move "allows licensed customers to feature full coverage" of every U.K. and Ireland race, at every race course, through a discounted Racing Pack subscription that combines Racing UK and At The Races (DIGITAL TV EUROPE, 9/16).

German news channel N24 "announced the launch of a new online sports portal." The new website, N24sport.de, "went online on Tuesday and will focus on football and F1." In addition, the website "will cover handball, golf, cycling, swimming and winter sports." For its new sports portal, N24 "has signed a cooperation with sports content provider Perform" (DWDL, 9/16). ... German media corporation ProSiebenSat.1 "has redesigned the logo of its sports brand 'ran.'" In addition, the ran website "has received an overhaul" (DWDL, 9/16). ... The German Tennis Federation (DTB) and ProSiebenSat.1 have launched a new online portal. The new website, www.tennis.de, went online on Thursday ahead of Germany's Davis Cup relegation matchup against Brazil (DTB).